Be Careful What You Wish For
by mori-princess359
Summary: Read this one-shot to find out: What a teenager does with her life when her real parents are dead and her adoptive parents don't even want her, how she endures the journey, and where she end up.


**Hello people. This is just a story I had to write for a scholarship thing my school was hosting. It was based on this verse: "The three remain: faith, hope, nad love; but the greatest of these is love." I had to 'Creatively express your ideas and dreams about faith, hope, and love, what they mean to you personally, and what they mean in your family, community, nation, and world.' It's supposed to be a **_**Short**_** Story, but, that OBVIOUSLY didn't work out. Whatever. Tell me what you guys think! Oh, and don't add it to your story alert 'cause this is the only chapter. See ya!**

**~MP359**

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_'Faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love... What the heck is that supposed to mean?!' _Janette furiously thought to herself as the words of last night's youth devotion rang through her mind constantly. "Whatever..." She brushed it off as nothing to worry about. You see, Janette had recently been attending her local youth group at Cross Baptist Church. The only reason she went was because she had no hope in her whatsoever, and she figured she could find it there. Her adoptive parents recently divorced, and neither _wanted _custody of their child. Weren't they supposed to fight over this? Weren't they supposed to love their child like nearly every other mother and father did? Weren't they? Yes, they were. But, alas, they did not.

Janette was unwanted and unappreciated. Neither of her adoptive parents wanted her, and she had no other family to turn to, for they all wanted nothing to do with her, also. Janette was what her adoptive parents called: " A mistake," Or rather harshly put, " A worthless, mistake of a child! No one wants anything to do with you!" Said, "worthless" child had been verbally and occasionally physically abused prior to her adoption into the orphanage very near to her home. She often volunteered at this orphanage to get away from her adoptive parents' constant bickering. Not that they ever noticed her gone. Her adoptive parents, unlike my, and many other parents, had no sense of this "faith, hope, and love" that was mentioned earlier. I am here to tell you Janette's story of struggle, recuperation, and victory over death and hate hoping that it will encourage you to never lose hope, always rely on God, and always stand up for what you believe in. Ah, how cliché; this is just the thing Janette had learned through her trials... Shall I begin?

**December 20, 2006**

"Janette! Get down here! Breakfast needs to be made!" Tamatha Brown, Janette's adoptive mother, called to her "precious" child. Janette was up in her room, getting her uniform on for school. Janette attended the least expensive, worst ciriculum, most-bomb-threats school in her area: Johnson Heights High School. The kids in this school revolved around groups and nationalities. All the gothic people only hung around the gothic people, the Hispanic kids only hung around the Hispanic people, and so on. Janette, of course, did not belong to any group. She was all alone even at school; no friends, nobody to turn to, nobody to tell her it was all right. Even if she did, they would be lying by telling her everything was okay. But, if they were to tell her it would get better, now _that _would be the truth.

Janette raced down the stairs, but was careful not to make much noise. _'Shouldn't it be "Janette! Please come down! Breakfast is ready!"? Oh, well.' _Janette sighed and rolled her eyes as she came to the bottom of the stairs, immediately jumping into the task of preparing breakfast for her adoptive parents.

"Henry, here's Jan's report card for this semester. Look over it. I'm far too busy to do so." Tamatha addressed her husband, Henry, dramatically, flipping her long, red hair over her shoulder. Henry merely rolled his eyes and took the piece of paper from her hand.

He nodded quite a few times as he reviewed the report card as Janette set the table for two. She usually skipped breakfast and grabbed a granola bar while heading out the door for school.

"Janette," Her "father" spoke.

"Yes?" She turned her full attention to him.

"Very good. Head off to school, now." Her father was the less apathetic parent. He did, somewhat, care what was happening in his adoptive daughter's life. He was the one who always went to the parent/teacher meetings, the one who always went to her plays and performances, the one who kept the balance in the family. He had a soft spot for Janette when the family would fight about who knows what.

"Thanks... um... Dad," Janette normally didn't call her adoptive parents "Mom" or "Dad", but she had started to call Henry "Dad" lately. He had been considerably nice as of late.

"Bye, Jan," He even thought of a nickname for her, unlike Tamatha, who would always hiss Janette's name. But she took no note of this, and frankly, didn't care.

Janette ran out the door, grabbing her granola bar to take with her, and headed off for school. Like she did everyday, Janette would leave for school early so she could stop by the orphanage that was a few blocks from her house and say a hello to everyone there. If she had enough time, she would sometimes help make breakfast for the younger kids who weren't capable of this quite yet.

After this, Janette would run a few more blocks down to the homeless shelter and always help make breakfast there. But Janette never minded. She may have had to sacrifice two hours of sleep for this, but it was totally worth it to her. She would make a few bowls of grits and put some sausage on the side, and every time she passed a homeless person on the side of the street, she would hand out the bowl of hot breakfast for the person to enjoy. Her community never really did anything out of love for the citizens; most citizens held no hope in their hearts that it would ever get better. Because of this loss of hope, there was no faith either. Well, in my opinion, all this needs to be present to have a healthy community. Janette also believes this. She does everything in her power to help this dream come true. Janette and I have more in common than you would think, right? Well, I should get on with this story.

Janette's day at school was like any other. She went to all of her morning classes and, at lunch, would sit by herself, eating her home-made lunch. She never bought from the cafeteria for fear of food poisoning. Janette often laughed at herself for this, but knew very well if she were to fall ill and was incapable of doing anything, the household she lived in would fall into pieces. After her lunch, she would always make her way to the other end of campus and sit through every one of her boring, afternoon classes. After the day had ended, she would check the grocery list and see if anything was needed. If it was, she would run down to the nearest grocer and buy whatever items were needed. She usually had to go down there, so the store clerk and employees knew her quite well. She knew them so well, she would even call ahead sometimes when she was in a hurry and ask him to prepare what she needed, so when she got there, she could grab the items and run. If there was nothing on the grocery list, which happened rarely, Janette would race down to the orphanage and read the younger kids a book and give the older children more advanced books she had borrowed from the school library.

When Janette reached home that cold, December evening, her "mother" was furious.

"Janette! You came home _before _the boat salesman got here. Now you have to hide in your room while he's here; you'll be a bother if you didn't."

"Yes, Tamatha." Janette turned to go up the stairs while rolling her eyes, all the while thinking, _'I can't control when I get home. They didn't tell me a stinkin' boat salseman was coming. I'm tired of this. I wish I could just go live in the orphanage. At least I'd be around people I love.' _

Now don't misunderstand; Janette loved her adoptive parents. But let's just say she didn't love them as much as she could. Anyway, Janette slunk up the stairs, and landed on her bed with a _'thud'_. She let out a heavy sigh, and changed into her pajamas. She might as well get some well-needed sleep.

**December 24, 2006**

Over the past few days, Janette had been thinking about what she wanted for Christmas. Janette was not so vacuous as to believe she would get anything. But, a girl could dream, couldn't she? The only thing Janette had that every other teenager had was a cellphone. The only reason she had this cellphone was because her adoptive mother believed Janette could not be: "Classified as a real teenager." Those were her exact words. Janette really never hoped for anything around any holidays -- even her birthday. But Janette never really minded. She would spend every holiday, special occasion, and birthday at either the homeless shelter or orphanage. She figured she'd be happier there than anywhere else. Janette was now out of school for her Christmas break, and was thinking about going to one of the many, church services that were being held for the Christmas Eve service. Well, this was _before _she knew her adoptive mother was holding a Christmas Eve party for pretty much the entire neighborhood. Janette would have to treck through the snow-ridden roadways and sidewalks to get to the grocery store tonight -- and would miss the church service. She went anyway, and passed the small church on the way there. _'You know what? I'm going to the service tonight. I don't care if Tamatha kicks me out or not.' _Janette quickened her pace, and made it to the grocery store in record time for having to plow through all the snow the small town of Ashland, Montana recieved this winter. She ran in, grabbed the many items quickly since she had practically memorized the store, and ran back out the double doors without even waving a goodbye to Mr. Daniels, the store clerk. She passed the church, the orphanage, and the homeless shelter on her way back to the house. When she arrived, she ran in, put the groceries on the counter and emptied the bags, ran up to her room, put on some khaki, dress pants and a nice enough shirt, ran back down the stairs and out the door before anyone could notice. As she was running down the path that led from the front steps to the sidewalk, she ran into Tamatha. "Where do you think you're going? You have to cater to the guests at the party. Well, you did one thing right; you're already dressed. Now get back inside the party starts in twenty minutes, and you haven't decorated yet," Tamatha pushed Janette into the house, and commanded her to decorate. "Come, on! How long can it take to wrap ribbon around twenty candles?!" _'Long enough for you to eat the whole box of chocolates.' _Janette snickered to herself as she tied the last ribbon. "What's so funny?" Tamatha shoved the last caramel truffle into her mouth. "Nothing. Nothing at all," Janette said the last part of her comment to herself. "Well, I don't know how you think I raised you," _'Not very well.' _Janette smiled to herself. "But I won't have you misbehaving." Tamatha removed herself and her leopard boots from the couch and moved them over to the door as the bell was rung. "Don't. Mess. This. Up." Tamatha emphasized this silently to Janette as she let the first few guests in. Janette rolled her eyes and grabbed the tray out of the fridge she had prepared with Pigs In A Blanket neatly placed beside the small cups of honey mustard. She began to walk around the room, offering various snacks and drinks to the many guests that had now entered the Brown household. After the party, when Janette was no longer needed, she laid on her bed, staring at the ceiling._'So much for going to the church service. I was really looking forward to it. It's all _her _fault. Tamatha. Why did they adopt me if they are already a disfunctional family... If you can call this a family. They probably just needed someone to get the groceries, and clean the house, and do this, and do that. Well, I'm tired of it. The only person I can talk to is Henry about this. And he probably wouldn't even care.' _Janette sighed inwardly and turned on her side to fall into a deep sleep, hoping she would have pleasant dreams that made her life seem better than it was. Too bad Janette missed that church service; she believed she could only talk to Henry about this situation. Here, I'll skip to the important part: where Janette finds the hope she's been looking for.

**January 3, 2007**

Janette had long since gotten over the missed church service. She continued her everyday life and never complained. But one day, she found out about Wednesday night services at church. It was her last day of Christmas break from school, she had no items to fetch from the grocery store, and no parties to tend to. All she had to do was ask Henry if she could go out tonight at about six o'clock. Why wouldn't he say yes? Janette let out a breathe she hadn't realized she was holding in. "Thank you... so much," Janette ran out the door and walked down the sidewalk to the church, fearless now. Her adoptive father had granted her permission to attend church that night. She thought nothing in the world could ruin this moment. She was right. She made her way to the church, and asked directions to the youth department. She had already decided she wouldn't be shy, but instead, be sociable and make as many friends as possible. Meanwhile...

**At the Brown household**

"You let her go out?! Now?!" Tamatha was screaming at her calm husband, who thought nothing was wrong with the situation. "Yes, I don't see anything wrong with that. Tell me your reason." He said this as he folded up the newspaper he had been recently reading. "Well... She... She just shouldn't be out right now!" Her reply was vague, and didn't offer much support. "..." He had nothing to reply with. He simply thought to himself. _'She must be worrying. Maybe she does care.' _ "And if you think I care, you're wrong. I don't. And if you're going to be like this, then... Just sign the stupid divorce papers already." Henry shook his head and got out the pen and papers. "I'll move to the mountain house immediately with Janette. If she wants to." "Whether she wants to or not, she is. I'm not getting stuck with the brat," Tamatha sniffed, throwing her hair over hear shoulder dramatically. Henry shook his head again and began to sign the papers.

**A few hours later**

It was eight o'clock by the time Janette arrived back home. She had had a good time at youth group, but was still confused about some things they had discussed the past few hours. She walked in the door, only to find her father packing up his last few things, and even some of her things. "May I ask what's going on?" Janette had a pretty good idea, but wanted to make sure. "Wait, you're... We're not moving out...? You signed the papers?!" Henry nodded. "But I don't want to leave! I want to stay here! Please? I can stay... um... at the orphanage! Yeah! Please?" Janette pleaded with her eyes just as much, maybe even more, than with her words. Henry sighed. "Alright. If that's what you really want..." Janette nodded furiosly in response. "Okay... I'll go talk to them," Janette smiled with happiness, and went to go pack the rest of her stuff.

**February 27, 2007**

Janette was now living in the orphanage she had often visited and helped out at. She attended the same school, which she didn't mind. She still borrowed books from the library to read to the other children and for the older children to read to themselves. Janette missed her adoptive father, and would often go up to the mountains to visit him. She quite enjoyed her new life, involved in her youth group at Cross Baptist Church and still occasionally help out at the homeless shelter. Janette had now learned what this "faith, hope, and love" meant -- even around the world as we see it today. She saw it in her own country, state, town, and what she called home. You know how I mentioned earlier Janette and I had much in common? Well, it's because we're the same person. I told you my own testimony to help you through those tough times when you think you are receiving no love, or have no hope to hold onto, or even have no faith to believe in. When you are going through those times, always remember that God will always be there. He never leaves you. Ever.


End file.
